Minimum

Minimum is a 2014 third-person shooter whose performance profile, when paired with the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, reveals a system that scales predictably across resolutions and settings. The measured data shows a clear hierarchy of performance, with the combination delivering playable frame rates at 1440p and exceptional headroom at 1080p, while 4K presents a significant challenge that requires careful settings management. This analysis examines the measured FPS data to determine the optimal configuration, the role of the GPU and CPU, and how this specific combo ranks against the broader field of tested hardware.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data strongly suggests that the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance for this combination. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers an average of 160 FPS, which is only 50 FPS lower than the Low preset’s 210 FPS but provides a substantial visual upgrade over the Low settings. More importantly, Medium maintains a minimum FPS of 136, ensuring that frame pacing remains smooth even during intense combat sequences. The High preset at 1080p drops to 135 FPS average, which is still excellent, but the margin between Medium and High is only 25 FPS, while the jump from Medium to Ultra (103 FPS) represents a 57 FPS loss that is not justified by the incremental visual gains.

For users targeting 2560x1440, the Medium preset again proves to be the sweet spot, delivering an average of 103 FPS with a minimum of 88 FPS. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay and provides a 16 FPS advantage over the High preset’s 87 FPS. The Low preset at 1440p reaches 135 FPS, but the visual compromise is significant; Medium offers a 32% reduction in frame rate from Low while providing substantially better texture quality and shadow detail. At 4K, the situation becomes more constrained, with Medium averaging 56 FPS and a minimum of 47 FPS. While this is playable, the Low preset at 73 FPS is the safer choice for maintaining consistent performance above 60 FPS, especially since the High preset at 47 FPS and Ultra at 36 FPS fall below the acceptable threshold for competitive play.

The data indicates that Medium is the recommended preset across all resolutions for this combo. It consistently delivers the best frame rate-to-quality ratio, with the 1440p Medium configuration (103 FPS) representing the ideal balance for most users. For those with high-refresh-rate 1080p monitors, the Low preset at 210 FPS may be preferable for maximum responsiveness, but for general play, Medium’s combination of 160 FPS at 1080p and 103 FPS at 1440p makes it the most versatile choice. The Ultra preset, while visually impressive, shows diminishing returns at every resolution, with the 4K Ultra average of 36 FPS being particularly problematic for a third-person shooter that requires precise aiming.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is the primary driver of the performance differences observed across settings and resolutions. With 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, the card offers 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for Minimum’s 2014-era graphics demands. The GPU’s 4864 shading units and 80 ROPs, paired with a boost clock of 1665 MHz, provide the raw compute power needed to process the game’s effects. The measured FPS data shows a clear correlation between GPU load and performance, with the 4K resolution tests demonstrating the card’s limitations.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 3060 Ti’s performance drops dramatically as settings increase. The transition from Low (73 FPS) to Medium (56 FPS) represents a 23% reduction, while the jump from Medium to High (47 FPS) is a further 16% decrease. This scaling pattern suggests that the GPU is becoming the bottleneck at 4K, as the increased pixel count and texture detail overwhelm the 8 GB frame buffer. The Ultra preset at 36 FPS is particularly telling, as it indicates that the card cannot maintain playable frame rates at maximum settings in 4K. The GPU’s memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s is likely the limiting factor here, as the higher resolution requires more data to be transferred per frame.

The GPU’s role becomes less critical at lower resolutions, where the CPU can keep up with the card’s output. At 1080p, the difference between Low (210 FPS) and Medium (160 FPS) is 50 FPS, while the jump from Medium to High (135 FPS) is only 25 FPS. This suggests that at 1080p, the GPU is not fully saturated, and the frame rate is more dependent on the game’s engine efficiency. However, the RTX 3060 Ti’s 16.20 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 253.1 GTexel/s texture rate ensure that it remains the dominant component in determining overall performance, particularly as resolution increases. The card’s 59th percentile ranking among all GPUs in the database indicates that while it is not a top-tier solution, it is well above average for this game’s requirements.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Minimum with this combo for a 60 FPS experience?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 with Medium settings delivers an average of 103 FPS with a minimum of 88 FPS, while 3840x2160 with Low settings achieves 73 FPS. For a locked 60 FPS experience, either 1440p Medium or 4K Low are viable, but 1440p Medium offers better visual quality with a higher frame rate margin.

Q: Does the RTX 3060 Ti’s 8 GB VRAM cause issues at 4K?

A: The measured data at 4K shows a significant performance drop from Low (73 FPS) to Medium (56 FPS), which suggests that the 8 GB frame buffer is being stressed by higher texture settings. The Ultra preset’s 36 FPS average further indicates that the VRAM capacity is a limiting factor at this resolution.

Q: How does the CPU affect performance in Minimum at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the Intel Core Ultra 5 225’s 10 cores and 10 threads, with a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, appear to be sufficient, as the frame rates reach 210 FPS on Low settings. The CPU’s 85th percentile ranking among all CPUs suggests it does not bottleneck the GPU at this resolution.

Q: Is the Ultra preset worth using at 1440p?

A: The Ultra preset at 1440p averages 66 FPS, which is playable but represents a 36% reduction from the Medium preset’s 103 FPS. Given that Medium provides a 37 FPS advantage with only minor visual differences, Ultra is not recommended for competitive play.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1080p and 4K at Medium settings?

A: At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 160 at 1080p to 103 at 1440p and then to 56 at 4K. This represents a 65% reduction from 1080p to 4K, indicating a strong GPU dependency at higher resolutions.

Q: How does this combo compare to the RTX 3060 Ti’s nearest GPU rivals in terms of raw performance?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score of 16129 is within 0.7% of the AMD Radeon RX 9060 (16014) and 1.4% of the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (16361). This suggests that the RTX 3060 Ti is closely matched with these cards in general compute, though game-specific performance may vary.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of how the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and RTX 3060 Ti handle Minimum across three resolutions and four settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 210 FPS, which is the highest recorded figure in the entire dataset. The Medium preset at 1080p averages 160 FPS, with a minimum of 136 FPS and a maximum of 185 FPS, indicating a stable frame rate with only minor fluctuations. The High preset drops to 135 FPS, while the Ultra preset falls to 103 FPS. This 1080p data shows a clear linear scaling, with each step up in settings reducing the frame rate by approximately 25-50 FPS.

The 2560x1440 results show a similar pattern but with lower absolute numbers. The Low preset at 1440p averages 135 FPS, which is 75 FPS lower than the 1080p Low result, demonstrating the impact of increased pixel count. The Medium preset at 1440p averages 103 FPS, with a minimum of 88 FPS and a maximum of 119 FPS, providing a solid 60 FPS-plus experience. The High preset at 1440p averages 87 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to 66 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at each setting level shows a consistent reduction of approximately 35-40%.

At 3840x2160, the performance becomes more constrained. The Low preset averages 73 FPS, which is the only 4K setting that exceeds 60 FPS. The Medium preset averages 56 FPS, with a minimum of 47 FPS and a maximum of 64 FPS, indicating that frame rates can dip below the 60 FPS threshold during demanding scenes. The High preset at 4K averages 47 FPS, while the Ultra preset falls to 36 FPS. The 4K data reveals that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at this resolution, as the settings scaling is more pronounced than at lower resolutions. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 37 FPS, compared to a 107 FPS difference at 1080p, highlighting the GPU’s diminishing returns at higher pixel densities.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of resolution scaling that indicates the GPU is the limiting component in this configuration. When moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 160 to 103, representing a 36% reduction. This scaling is consistent across all settings, with Low dropping from 210 to 135 FPS (36% reduction), High dropping from 135 to 87 FPS (36% reduction), and Ultra dropping from 103 to 66 FPS (36% reduction). The uniform scaling suggests that the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary factors, as the relative performance loss is identical across settings.

The transition from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 shows a more significant performance drop. At Medium settings, the average FPS falls from 103 to 56, a 46% reduction, which is steeper than the 1080p-to-1440p scaling. This non-linear scaling indicates that the GPU is becoming increasingly stressed at 4K, likely due to the 8 GB VRAM capacity being exceeded at higher settings. The Low preset at 4K (73 FPS) only shows a 46% reduction from 1440p Low (135 FPS), which is the same percentage as Medium, suggesting that the VRAM limitation is consistent regardless of settings.

The scaling data implies that the CPU, with its 10 cores and 3.30 GHz base clock (boost to 4.90 GHz), is not the limiting factor at any resolution. The consistent 36% reduction from 1080p to 1440p across all settings suggests that the GPU is fully utilized, and the CPU has sufficient headroom to feed it. However, the steeper 46% reduction from 1440p to 4K indicates that the GPU’s memory subsystem is the bottleneck, as the increased pixel count and texture detail require more bandwidth than the 448.0 GB/s available. This analysis shows that for users seeking higher resolutions, the RTX 3060 Ti’s 8 GB VRAM is the primary constraint, and reducing settings is necessary to maintain playable frame rates at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 plays a supporting role in Minimum’s performance, with its 10 cores and 10 threads proving more than adequate for the game’s 2014-era engine. The CPU’s base clock of 3.30 GHz and boost clock of 4.90 GHz, combined with 20 MB of shared L3 cache, provide the processing power needed to handle the game’s AI, physics, and game logic without bottlenecking the GPU. The measured FPS data confirms this, as the frame rates at 1080p Low (210 FPS) indicate that the CPU can sustain far higher output than the GPU can render.

The CPU’s benchmark scores further support its capability. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 25891 and single-core score of 3655 demonstrate strong multi-threaded and single-threaded performance, which is relevant for Minimum’s engine that may not fully utilize all 10 cores. The PassMark single-thread score of 4412 and multi-thread score of 30459 show that the CPU ranks in the 85th percentile among all CPUs, indicating it is a high-performance part that is unlikely to limit frame rates in this game.

The data suggests that the CPU’s role becomes more prominent at lower resolutions where the GPU is less stressed. At 1080p Medium, the average FPS of 160 suggests that the CPU is able to keep up with the GPU’s output, as the frame rate is not limited by the processor. However, at 4K, the CPU’s performance becomes irrelevant, as the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, with even the Low preset at 73 FPS failing to reach the 1080p Medium level. The CPU’s nearest rivals, including the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (0% delta) and AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D (-0.2% delta), show that this processor is competitively positioned in its class, ensuring that it does not introduce any performance deficits in Minimum.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti combination ranks 1419th out of 2939 tested combos in Minimum, placing it in the 52nd percentile of all configurations. This mid-pack ranking reflects the GPU’s 59th percentile standing and the CPU’s 85th percentile standing, indicating that the GPU is the limiting factor in this pairing. The combo’s rank suggests that while it is not a top-tier build, it is capable of delivering a satisfying experience in Minimum, particularly at 1080p and 1440p with Medium settings.

The ranking implies that there are 1520 combos that perform better, but also 1418 that perform worse, positioning this system as a solid mid-range option. The GPU’s nearest rivals, including the AMD Radeon RX 9060 (0.7% higher average score) and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (1.4% higher), suggest that the RTX 3060 Ti is closely matched with other mid-range cards. The CPU’s performance, which is within 0.5% of the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D and Intel Core i9-12900T, indicates that the processor is not a significant differentiator in this ranking.

The combo’s rank is likely influenced by the GPU’s 8 GB VRAM limitation at 4K, which prevents it from achieving higher frame rates at maximum settings. However, the measured FPS data shows that at 1080p and 1440p, this combo outperforms many lower-ranked configurations, making it a viable choice for gamers who prioritize high refresh rates over 4K resolution. The rank of 1419 out of 2939 suggests that this is a balanced build that offers good performance for its component class, with the CPU providing ample headroom for future GPU upgrades. The data indicates that users looking to improve their rank in Minimum should focus on GPU upgrades, as the CPU is already performing at a high level relative to its peers.